1. 10/20/13
‘Status quo no longer acceptable,’ Tony Clement tells government technology conference
‘Status quo no longer acceptable,’ Tony Clement tells
government technology conference
Public service needs to challenge accepted ways, Treasury Board
president says
BY KATHRYN MAY, OTTAWA CITIZEN
OCTOBER 8, 2013
‘We need to be bold. Giving up on an idea because it doesn’t fit within how the government is supposed to do business is not a
legitimate excuse,’ Treasury Board President Tony Clement told delegates at a government technology conference Tuesday.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — The Conservative government’s priority is to transform the use of technology in
government and bring Canada’s public service — and the way it works and delivers services — into
the 21st century, says Treasury Board President Tony Clement.
Clement was one of the keynote speakers who on Tuesday opened the annual government
technology event known as GTEC with the promise the government will be continuing its drive to
standardize, consolidate and transform the way it does business because the “status quo is no
longer sustainable or acceptable.”
“Now more than ever, the public service needs to be innovative, and think outside the box to
challenge the accepted and expected ways of doing things,” Clement told the conference, which has
attracted some 7,000 delegates from the public service and 190 companies to discuss agile
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2. 10/20/13
‘Status quo no longer acceptable,’ Tony Clement tells government technology conference
government, at the Ottawa Convention Centre.
“We need to be bold. Giving up on an idea because it doesn’t fit within ‘how the government is
supposed to do business’ is not a legitimate excuse.”
Clement has been trumpeting the transformation of government since he took the Treasury Board
portfolio in 2011. He is also acknowledged as the party’s social media guru and is leading the
initiative to open up access to data and information, a move he says will forever change the way
citizens interact with their government.
He said government must be managed like an “enterprise” and should work closely with industry for
government­wide solutions and insisted that all IT spending must result in improved services to
Canadians.
Shared Services Canada is the Conservatives flagship agency that is taking over the running of
government IT services from individual departments. Shares Services is introducing a single email
system across government that officials hope will save $50 million a year. It is also planning similar
consolidation projects for data centres and networks.
Clement said the email project sets the marker for the kind of “ruthless standardization” the
government needs to operate as an enterprise. He argued the government isn’t special or unique
and should run and think like any other company does.
Over the past year, he said the government charged ahead with modernizing the “back office” by
standardizing and consolidating applications for key support functions across government,
particularly human resources, finance and web content. “Back office” typically refers to internal
services that all departments use, such as finance, human resources, information technology,
communications and procurement.
The next big step is consolidating human resources and financial management systems and the
government has been discussing with industry how to replace the patchwork of systems across
departments.
But Clement said the transformation of government business isn’t about modernizing processes or
updating old systems but rather a “leap frog to the forefront of new technology.”
He said departments are too inward­looking and are too used to focusing on their own needs and
problems as opposed to government­wide problems. As the largest employer in the country, the
government has the clout and “collective size to save money, time and resources” to provide
Canadians better services.
“We often fall victim to solutions that ‘divide and conquer’ the government. This leads to individual
departments paying higher prices for common solutions that should be servicing the government as
a whole,” he said.
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3. 10/20/13
‘Status quo no longer acceptable,’ Tony Clement tells government technology conference
“My intention is to have government act more like the enterprise it truly is. Identify common issues,
develop a road map, and work with the private sector to implement new solutions. “
Although the Conservative government is harshly criticized for its secrecy, Clement claimed Canada
has taken an “international leadership role” in opening up its data. Canada is among the G8 member
countries that signed an Open Data Charter. In June, the government created its open data portal
(data.gc.ca) to allow access to government data in one spot rather than scattered across
departments.
Clement is banking that open data will help spur innovation and boost productivity as people mine the
data to come up with new apps that will provide services to Canadians.
“Open data is truly changing the way citizens interact with their governments around the world,” said
Clement.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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‘We need to be bold. Giving up on an idea because it doesn’t fit within how the government is supposed to do business is not a
legitimate excuse,’ Treasury Board President Tony Clement told delegates at a government technology conference Tuesday.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen
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